Day 3

19/10/09

Woke up at 515ish
got changed and packed up
had a lovely hot choc brought to me :)
luxuary!!!

breakfast was delicious!!
toast and a big fluffy pancake with G.A.P written on it in toffee
Delicious!

We refilled our water bottles then set off.
I was really tired and not in the midset for walking and it was all uphill!!!!
It was a really hot sunny day and the skies were really blue!
Ollie was really sweet and gave me a bit of a motivational speech, cheered me up

Think id eaten too much and walked too soon though coz i felt a bit sicky!!

We arrived at the ruins of Runkuraqay which means oval house in Quechua
It was a stop off house for Inka messengers

from there we had a long uphill walk for over an hour.

It was a very beautiful walk with great views of the snowcapped mountains and high altitude lakes
Finally i arrived at the top, 3760m high

We then had to walk down a rediculous amount of steps to another ruin called Sayacmarca.
On the way we passed a pool of blood on one bit of the trail. We found out later one of the other groups porters had slipped and cut his head open quite badly! Such a dangerous job and for only 40pounds each trail!!! thats 10pounds a day!

Maddy, Lou, Paul, Siobhan, Emma and I decided to keep on walking and not climb another hill to the ruins...think ive seen enough of those already!
It was a lovely walk up a mountain and over the other side
We passed through inka tunnells and saw some spectacular views!
We had lunch at Phuyu Pata Marca, felt much better after eating and drinking
after lunch we all lay around in the sun, i burnt my head....baldy!!

We walked down to the ruins there and splashed ourselves with the cool spring water
From there we all set out at our own pace to the campsite

Siobhan, Emma and I stayed back to find a suitable spot to have a wee
It was a long walk and a very pretty one throught the jungle
As we walked the skies clouded over and we could hear thunder rumbling around the valleys
We cought up with Marie and Jim and the guides
i decided to eat the snickers id been saving, trouble was it had melted in the sun
By the time i had finished it i looked like a 2year old that had just eaten a mini milk!!
Chocolate everywhere
I will remember in the future not to eat melted chocolate while walking along!!

When we reached a fork in the path we were persuaded to take the longer route as it was a bit flatter and took us to some ruins
When we stepped out fo the jungle into the open by the ruins we saw a view that literally took all of our breath away!!
it was amazing!
we met the boys at the ruins and when we walked down we stopped for a group photo with the rainbow in the background and all

The campsite was very nice and very big
After dumping my stuff in the tent i went off in search of a hot shower
Maddy and Lou were already in the queue...they had taken the short cut
i eventually got in the shower, as it was electric it was very hot but not very powerful!! bum!
managed to wash my hair though!

got back in time for tea mmmmmmm!

After tea we all headed to the bar and communal building where the guys had a beer...i had an inka kola
we all had a chat and then headed back to the tents for dinner
we had a really lovly soup to start then fried chicken and veg and potatoes

we collected money in for the porters in my hat for the ceremony later

the chefs then brought out a huge lovely cake!! it was so delicious
and jelly!!!!!
yeah!!!!!

then we had the porters ceremony
i was elected to give the speech as my spanish was best
they all seemed really pleased
then dan did hip hip hoorays and we all clapped
then we had to kiss all the porters on the cheek and shake their hands
went to bed straight after...really early start tomorow

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Part of trip: South America

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